Something different…

A weigh-in has a mystique all its own. It’s a peek behind the curtain at what the fans don’t see. There’s the seemingly endless paperwork, forms, credential verification, the medical exam, the lines, and the waiting, then the weigh-in itself.

And then there are lots of people with serious faces – trainers, managers, corner personnel, fighters, and usually officials from the NYS Athletic Commission – unless the fight is at Turning Stone Casino – in which case they’re from the Oneida Nation (there’s a long story there I won’t bother going into.)

And, of course, there is a kind of nervous anticipation you won’t find anywhere else – except, maybe before a bull fight somewhere on the other side of the planet. I would imagine matadors and their “people” must have some equivalent bureaucratic dance before the moment of truth arrives.

Schenectady's Markus Williams and Trainer, VInce Kittle

Behind the smiles and lightheartedness, the small talk and laughter, everybody knows why he or she is there. It’s a little surreal – fighters peacefully standing in line next to the very person they plan to knock into a different area code in just few hours. Everybody’s quiet and respectful but, my goodness…

So when Kyle Provenzano of Schott’s Gym who, along with Andy Schott, is trainer of three of the fighters on tomorrow night’s Turning Stone card, called to ask me to take a ride with him to the weigh-in, I said “sure.” With NYS lightweight champion Brian Miller in the back seat, we headed west on the snowy and forbidding NYS Thruway.

What do fight people talk about when the time of trial approches? Where do their thoughts go? Was Brian talking about how he’ll handle Jose Guzman (5-6-1) in their 8-round contest? Guzman is no joke. He’s had 100 amateur fights and was on the U.S. National Team in 2005. “Whatever he’s got, I’ve seen before,” Guzman told me later of Miller.

Jose Guzman

Was Kyle giving last minute instructions to someone he’s spent countless hours training? Kyle won’t be the one in the ring, but don’t kid yourself, there’s just as much riding on this fight for him as there is for Brian. “I won’t go to the fight without this,’ he said, holding up a small bottle of Pepto Bismal. You won’t find anybody, anywhere who takes what he does more seriously than does Kyle Provenzano.
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Anyway, “No” to the above questions. Provenzano and Miller didn’t talk about the fight. Nope, not once. Instead, they took turns talking about the women in their lives. I didn’t bring it up. “She’ll support me no matter what,” Brian said of his fiancé, 23-year old Kari Perrotte. “If I told her I’m quitting tomorrow, she’d say ‘fine’; if I said I’m going to fight for another 50 years, she say ‘fine,’ too. She just wants what I want.”

Does she get scared for you? I mean that you might get hurt? “She knows the danger, but I guess she just chooses not to think about it. But,” he said upon reflection, “I know it bothers her a lot.”

“Kari puts of with such more from me when I’m getting ready for a fight. When you can’t eat, especially at the beginning, you get real cranky and impossible. She puts up with it. I always apologize, but she takes a lot of bad moods from me.”

“But my mother, she’s worried about it since day #1,” Miller said, referring to mom, Melanie Cullen. “You should see the video of my first fight. You can see the veins popping out her neck,” he continued, laughing hysterically at the memory. “She’s yelling ‘1-2, 1-2’ when she had no idea what she was talking about.”

Kyle Provenzano and Brian Miller

“But she’s always supported me – from the start.”

Then Kyle took a turn, saying all the same things about Chrystie Snyder, whom he’s been with for seven months now. “She makes so many sacrifices, but she’s cool about it,” he said.

“She’s easy going and I’m not. I’ll be flipping out about something and she’ll just say, ‘okay, calm down.’”

The conversation went on like this for pretty much the whole trip, until toward the end, when they started talking about their faith beliefs. No surprise; not to me anyway. That subject often comes up with fighters, in one way or another. Kyle and Brian have a clear sense of their own spirituality – much clearer than does this former minister with an M.A. in Systematic Theology, I can tell you that much. They know what they know and it’s part of who they are.

Make what you want from all of this rambling, but all I know is that with a brutal fight only 24-hours away, these guys were feeling nothing but deep gratitude for the good things in their lives. It was like being in church, and they were offering thanks.

Reggie Scott from Schott's Gym will be making his pro debut

The countless uninformed who insist on equating boxing with brutality should be around for one of these conversations. But they never are. They never want to get close enough to see beyond the stereotype.

Schenectady’s Reggie Scott will be making is pro-debut in a four round light heavyweight match with Demarcus Clark (1-1) from Shreveport, LA. I should add that Reggie and his brother Stephon Scott (also a fighter from Schott’s Gym) came with Kyle and me for the ride back from Turning Stone. Brian rode with Andy Faragon.

That trip was a lot different than the one out. There was no time to talk about anything but trying to survive the blizzard we were driving though:) Spirituality came up but in a whole different context as our lives were flashing before our eyes. Yikes

Markus Williams (3-1 [1 KO]), also from Schenectady will meet super middleweight Rondu Campbell (2-3 [1 KO]) from Brooklyn in a four rounder.